Livingston

Aug
07
2008

Network Solutions Changes Perceptions With New Actions

Cross-posted on Social Media Group.

slide0002_image011 Recently, Network Solutions engaged Livingston Communications (soon to be Social Media Group) to engage in a reputation monitoring and social PR. Phase one began on July 1, an effort to directly engage generators of negative commentary on blogs, Twitter and forums in a listen and respond conversation. Just one month into it, we’ve already seen some incredible conversations and results:

Consider the following commentary:

Maybe this Social Media Thing Works After All: “It takes a certain level of complete and utter dissatisfaction for someone (or at least me) to blog about it. It’s unfortunate that a blog entry (NOT our letter to customer service) caught the attention of the uppers at Network Solutions, but it’s smart of them to monitor the chatter. And it’s appreciated, as a person who had a situation that needed rectifying.”

Michael Arrington’s Network Solutions post clarification: “Network Solutions says I got at least part of the story wrong, since they’ve been talking about this issue for three years. My response: Then why engage in the practice? And will they now voluntarily stop?”

NetworkSolutions.Com Account Number Follow-Up: I am very happy to see a quick reaction to this and thank David for taking action.

And on Twitter, responses like these:

netsoltweet1

netsoltwitter2

At the heart of the reputation management program is a serious long term commitment from Network Solutions to identify, listen and attempt to promptly resolve problems. We believe just saying we care isn’t enough, and do everything we can to resolve problems, and use the Voice of the Customer as a catalyst to evolve Network Solutions offerings. In some cases, we can’t always provide the answer people want to hear, but they know we are engaged. And it’s clearly making an immediate difference.

Our end goal is to significantly decrease the company’s 58 percent negative commentary ratio (as of June 30) by more than 20 points, effectively positioning the company as more reputable solutions provider. This is very similar to the Dell reputation program, but in our case, we will try to catalyze a faster decrease in posts with Phase II: Social PR (Sorry, details are under wraps).

The reputation process was forged by Kami Huyse, Qui Diaz, Larissa Fair and myself from the Livingston team, and Network Solutions’ Susan Wade and Shashi Bellamkonda. In addition, the program is continuing to be refined by all of us as well as team Network Solutions team members Connie Bensen and Gerry Rosso.

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